By Yoon Chul
Staff Reporter
The South Korean national football team notched a victory Tuesday in the first match of its training session in Malaga, Spain, earning a much-deserved 2-0 win over Finland.
The Korean traveled from South Africa to Spain a few days ago as part of its overseas training session in preparation for this summer’s World Cup.
Despite all the talk about the team’s attacking players in recent weeks, it was two defenders who scored for Korea as Oh Beom-seok found the net in the first half and Lee Jung-soo doubled the lead after halftime.
But it was the Finns who got the jump on the Taeguk Warriors early, applying pressure through the first 20 minutes of play. Finland threatened the Korean net with several crosses and its defenders played further up, making it difficult for the Koreans to generate an attack.
But the World Cup qualifiers adjusted and pushed the Finns back on their heels with a short-passing game.
Korea came close in the 28th minute when No Byung-jun’s header was caught by the Finnish goalie on the goal line.
But the Korean effort finally yielded results when a streaking No received the ball on the right side and penetrated towards the net. His path was blocked by Finnish defenders but the ball came to Oh whose left-footed shot found the net in the 39th.
The Korean national team continued its rise in the 56th minute when Kim Do-heon’s free kick shook the back of the net but Kim Jung-woo was ruled offside.
But they managed to capitalize on another chance five minutes later when Kim’s header from Yeom Ki-hoon’s free right came to Lee Jung-soo, who scored to give the East Asian team a 2-0 lead.
“They did not play well at the start of the game as they were getting used to the stadium,” Korean team manager Huh Jung-moo said. “But after that my boys did well. Given the work we did at the training session in South Africa, they deserve to be applauded.”
The match against Finland is seen as preparation for the match against Greece at the World Cup.
“It’s difficult to say which team is better, Greece or Finland. But today, Finland did not play very well,” the boss explained.
Huh explained that his team must be more active in defending against the taller, stronger Europeans, especially when they are on the attack near the Korean net.
Korea will play Latvia on Thursday night (KST).